Pokemon UltraSun/UltraMoon are now out and available on the Nintendo 3DS- confirmed to be the final mainline games in the series on Nintendo’s aged portable, these games are nonetheless a great way for the franchise to bow out as it moves towards the Switch. As expanded re-releases of last year’s Pokemon Sun/Moon, they address the flaws those games had while building upon their strengths- the result is you get a packed to the brim title with a lot to see and do.

In this guide, we walk you through seeing and doing that stuff- we will be walking you through the Z-Moves, locations for Legendary Pokemon and Ultra Beasts, Totem Stickers, Trial Captains, Poke-Rides, farming EXP and Money, EV training, and farming Heart Scales. So let’s get started.

Z-MOVES

Z-Moves are the new mechanic introduced in last year’s game, where, by having your Pokemon hold a specific item, you can charge and level up their moves and make them more spectacular ‘finishers’. Most Z-Moves are generic, and based on Type- some Z-Moves, on the other hand specifically power up a very exact move in your Pokemon’s move pool.

Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon introduce over two dozen new Z-Moves to the game- you can check them all out in the video below:

There are a ridiculous amount of Legendary Pokemon and Ultra Beasts (the not-really-Legendary-Pokemon-but-let’s-face-it-they-are-Legendary) in Sun/Moon. Game Freak decided to go nuts and tap into six generations’ worth of Legendary Pokemon, in addition to the Legendaries, Mysticals, Ultra Beasts, and Tapu Guardians, that Sun/Moon already had, and put them in this one game.

To be specific, there are 37 Legendaries that you can get your hands on- some of these will be encountered naturally in the story, while others you run into by looking for them. Basically, you have to find them in Ultra Space. In Ultra Space, you will encounter Orange orbs- collect as many of these as you can, these increase your chances of finding Legendaries. Additionally, you will also run into Wormholes of different colors- each of these hide certain Pokemon behind them, for you to catch. Remember, Ultra Beasts can be farmed indefinitely, but a Legendary can only be caught once.

Remember, Ultra Poipole,Lulala and Solgaleo will be encountered in the story (based on what version you are playing); the four Tapo Guardians can be encountered at the shrine at each island once you win the Pokemon League (except Tapo Koko, whom you battle in the main story’s epilogue).

Now for the others, here’s the breakdown:

White Wormholes:

Pheromosa

Xurkitree

Celesteela

Kartana

Nihilego

Buzzwole

Guzzlord

Blue Wormholes:

Legendary Lugia

Legendary Mesprit

Legendary Azelf

Legendary Kyurem: Needs Reshiram and Zekrom

Legendary Latias

Legendary Latios

Legendary Kyogre

Legendary Uxie

Legendary Suicune: Needs Entei and Raikou

Green Wormholes:

Legendary Terrakion

Legendary Virizion

Legendary Mewtwo

Legendary Xerneas

Legendary Cobalion

Legendary Raikou

Legendary Entei

Legendary Dialga

Legendary Reshiram

Legendary Zekrom

Red Wormholes:

Legendary Articuno

Legendary Zapdos

Legendary Moltres

Legendary Cresselia

Legendary Tornadus

Legendary Thundurus

Legendary Landorus: Needs Tornadus and Thundurus

Legendary Yveltal

Legendary Ho-Oh

Legendary Rayquaza: Needs Kyogre and Groudon

Yellow Wormholes:

Legendary Articuno

Legendary Zapdos

Legendary Moltres

Legendary Ho-Oh

Legendary Cresselia

Legendary Tornadus

Legendary Thundurus

Legendary Landorus: Needs Tornadus and Thundurus

Legendary Rayquaza: Needs Kyogre and Groudon

Legendary Yveltal

NECROZMA

One thing I am sure you noticed was that Necrozma is missing from that list above- the reason is simple- he warrants his own section.

Necrozma is captured in the post-game: you must make your way to the top of Mount Lanalika to catch him. My advice would be to save your Master Ball for him, since he is really hard to capture otherwise. Once you catch him, Colress will give you items to fuse him with Solgaleo and Lunala.

NEW ITEMS

Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon add in a lot of new items to the game; as any long time player of the games has known, items in Pokemon are hugely important, and they can often mean the difference between victory and defeat. Items in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon are every bit as useful as this tradition would suggest.

Blue Petal & Green Petal
Found in the Lush Jungle, you need to collect seven of each for Mina’s Trial

Yellow Petal
Found in Hokulani Observatory for Mina’s trial; you need to collect seven of these.

Orange Petal & Pink Petal
Found in Hau’li Cemetery, you need to collect seven of each for Mina’s Trial

Pink Petal
Found in Seafolk Village, you need to collect seven for Mina’s Trial

Purple Petal
Found in Aether House, you need to collect seve for Mina’s Trial

Red Petal
Found in Wela Volcano Park, you need to collect seven of each for Mina’s Trial

Rainbow Flower
Found in Seafolk Village, you get this petal from captains during Mina’s trial. You will need to collect seven different types.

Ilima’s Normalium Z
Ilima gives you this in Hau’li City

Kommonium Z
You can find this in the Plains Grotto. This turns Kommo-o’s Clanging Scales to a special Z-Move.

Lunalium Z
This is found during the Mahalo Trial, near the Lake of the Sunne; it unlocks Lunala’s Z-Move.

Lycanium Z
Get this in Malie City to unlock Lycanroc’s Z-Move.

Mimikium Z
Get this in the Thrifty Megamart to unlock Mimikyu’s frankly terrifying Z-Move.

N-Lunarizer
Colress gives this to you at Mount Lanalika; it lets you fuse Necrozma and Lunala

Solganium Z
Found in Lake of the Moone, during the Mahalo Trial, this unlocks Solgaleo’s Z-Move.

N-Solarizer
Colress gives this to you at Mount Lanalika; it lets you fuse Necrozma and Solgaleo

Ultranecrozium Z
Found in Mount Lanakila, this crystal turns Necrozma fused with Solgaleo or Lunala to a new form.

Surge Badge
It’s just a novelty badge you can get at the Kantonian Gym.

ROTO LOTO POKEDEX

The upgraded Roto Loto Pokedex is actually going to be very useful for you- it restores the Z-Powers from Pokemon X/Y, which gave you buffs and perks to make your life as a Pokemon Trainer easier. you can find a full list of the new features for yourself below:

Roto Catch
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, this increases the chances of catching a Pokemon.

Roto Encounter
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, this will increase the chance of finding more high-level Pokemon in the wild.

Roto Exp. Points
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, this adds a 1.25x multiplier for EXP gained at the end of battle..

Roto Bargain
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, this reduces prices of products by half at all Poke Marts.

Roto Friendship
Found in the Roto Loto Pokedex, with this Pokemon in your party will grow friendly quickly.

Roto Hatch
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, it will reduce the time it takes for your eggs to hatch.

Roto Boost
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, this raises the stats of all battling Pokemon.

Roto HP Restore
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, it will restore some HP for your battling Pokemon.

Roto PP Restore
Found in the new Roto Loto Pokedex, it restores some PP for all battling Pokemon.

Roto Prize Money
Found in the Roto Loto Pokeex, it increases the cash payout you get at the end of each fight by 3x.

Roto Stealth
Found in the Roto Loto Pokedex, this acts as a wild Pokemon repellant.

TOTEM POKEMON STICKERS

Another completely new thing for you to hunt down in this game are the Totem Stickers- there are 100 of these to find and collect, and if you do so, you can get the six Totem Pokemon in the game (which is, of course, great news, since they’re buffed up versions of normal Pokemon).

How to find 100 Totem Stickers? Why, we’re here to help: check out the video for yourself below!

EV TRAINING

Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon have, much like Pokemon Sun/Moon, removed Super Training and Horde Battles, which were both the preferred methods to EV Train in Pokemon X/Y and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire. Instead, this time around, players must use new methods to EV train. Mostly, this is reliant on you utilizing the SOS Battles (which is when a wild Pokemon calls for help during battle), to gain EVs- done right, you could end up maximizing your Pokemon’s EVs for a certain stat in as little as seven battles in an SOS chain. Plus, the good news is, unlike last year’s SOS mechanic, which could be interminably annoying, this new one isn’t actually half bad and far more manageable.

That comes later, first, let’s walk you through the basics and specifics of what EV training is, and why you should care about it at all.

EV Training

But first- what is EV training? EV training is what determines the stat growth of your Pokemon. Every Pokemon that you encounter in the wild gives you Effort Value (or EV) points towards one of your six stats- HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Receiving four points towards anyone of these stats leads to an additional +1 in that stat. Any Pokemon can receive a total of 510 points, and any one stat can receive a total of 252 EV points.

This is the mechanic that you use to allocate points to your Pokemon for certain stats- since Pokemon doesn’t let you govern what stats will grow for your Pokemon when they level up, you need to leverage EVs to create Pokemon with dedicated roles on your team- you can have a Wall that specializes in high HP and defense, a sweeper with high Attack, a Tank with high HP and Attack, you can have a Pokemon with high Attack and Speed that always hits first, and so on.

One way to do this is to simply fight the Pokemon that yield the EVs you want repeatedly- you can find a list of what Pokemon yield what EV in Alola on Serebii. However, this method can take long, so we’re here to help you quicken things up.

SOS Battles

SOS Battles are what we brought up earlier- used right, you can maximize your Pokemon’s EVs for a certain stat in just seven battles within a chain. This is because Pokemon called upon in an SOS battle yield double EVs– so SOS battles can be a very fast way of EV training. Use Adrenaline Orbs to induce SOS battles. Below is a list of the ideal routes that you can go train your Pokemon in for specific EVs:

HP: Maile City (Grimer)

Attack: Route 1 (Yungoose during the day, Spinarak during the night)

Defense: Route 12 (Geodude)

Special Attack: Hau’oli Cemetary (Gastly, only at night)

Special Defense: Route 2 (Drowzee)

Speed: Seaward Cave (Zubat)

Use items to speed things up- you can give your Pokemon the Macho Brace, which doubles the EVs that it gets. You can also use supplements to give your Pokemon certain EVs:

HP Up: Adds 10 HP EVs

Protien: Adds 10 Attack EVs

Iron: Adds 10 Defense EVs

Calcium: Adds 10 Special Attack EVs

Zinc: Adds 10 Special Defense EVs

Carbos: Adds 10 Speed EVs

In addition to the following items that you can use to gain specific EVs in each battle on top of the ones you would already get from that battle. All of these can be found in the Battle Tree for Battle Points:

Power Anklet: Reduces Speed but allows holder’s Speed stat to grow

Power Band: Reduces Speed but allows holder’s Sp. Def to grow

Power Belt: Reduces Speed but allows holder’s Defense to grow

Power Bracer: Reduces Speed but allows holder’s Attack to grow

Power Lens: Reduces Speed but allows holder’s Sp. Attack to grow

Power Weight: Reduces Speed but allows holder’s HP to grow

Pokerus

Yes, you want your Pokemon to catch a disease. This is because the Pokerus is a unique virus that doubles the EVs you get from any battle. In theory, with the Pokerus, Macho Brace, and an SOS battle, you could end up maxing out any specific EV for a Pokemon in a single battle.

EV Gains Without Battling

Unfortunately, the excellent Super Training, which let you gain and allocate EV Points by participating in minigames, is gone in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. What you do still have, though, are ways to control EV growth for your Pokemon, even if you are a more casual player who doesn’t want to invest in so many items and battles to set up the perfect SOS Chain.

Develop the Isle Evelup in your Poke Pelago. This lets you pick six Pokemon stored in your PC that get EV trained. Without Poke Beans put out, maxing out EVs take 31 hours and 30 minutes- putting Poke Beans out halves that time.

Use the Bouncy House in Poke Plaza to level up your Pokemon’s EVs. You can develop six courses within it, one dedicated to each stat. You need to level up the Festival Plaza to add more courses to the Bouncy House and make it more effective, and you can only use it once a day.

You can keep track of your Pokemon’s EV growth by checking the graph on the top screen when you open up the Pokemon’s Status Screen.

HYPER TRAINING

You can ‘improve’ your Pokemon’s IVs using Hyper Training. Hyper Training is found in the Mall in Hau’oli City, which will let you improve either one specific IV for any of your Pokemon, or all of them, by asking for Bottle Caps as payment.

The thing to remember here is that your Pokemon’s IVs aren’t actually improved, but the game hacks itself to pretend that they are

Your Pokemon must be Level 100 for them to participate in Hyper Training

NEW WILD POKEMON

Yes, there are new wild Pokemon you can catch in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, returning ones from older generations you couldn’t get in Sun/Moon. Find the full list below:

Buneary: Route 1.

Zorua: Trainers’ School.

Mr. Mime: Hau’oli City.

Ekans: Route 2.

Dunsparce: Route 2.

Furfrou: Route 2.

Noibat: Verdant Cavern.

Smoochum: Seaward Cave.

Mawile: Ten Carat Hill.

Mareep: Paniola Ranch.

Basculin: Brooklet Hill.

Hoothoot: Lush Jungle (Night)

Noctowl: Lush Jungle (Night)

Larvesta: Lush Jungle (Day)

Volcarona: Lush Jungle (Day)

Larvitar: Diglett’s Tunnel.

Natu: Akala Outskirts.

Xatu: Akala Outskirts.

Mincinno: Malie City.

Pineco: Route 10.

Elgyem: Mount Hokulani.

Frillish: Route 14.

Shuppet: Thrify Megamart.

Remoraid: Melemele Sea.

Clamperl: Melemele Sea.

Gorebyss: Melemele Sea.

Mantyke: Melemele Sea.

Baltoy: Haina Desert.

Scraggy: Route 16.

Floette: Ula’Ula Meadow.

Pawniard: Route 17.

Bisharp: Route 17.

Dragalge: Poni Breaker Coast.

Tropius: Exeggutor Island.

Mienfoo: Vast Poni canyon.

Corphish: Vast Poni canyon.

Lopunny: Poni Grove.

Heracross: Poni Grove.

Pyroar: Poni Plains.

Aipom: Poni Plains.

Lickitung: Poni Gauntlet.

Druddigon: Resolution Cave.

MIMIKYU AND DUSK LYCANROC

Okay, so first let’s get the Dusk Lycanroc out of the way. The way to get it is simple- you need a Tempo Rockruff from the Mystery Gift option on the main menu, then level it to 25 between 5:00 PM – 5:59 PM if you are playing Pokémon Ultra Sun and 5:00 AM – 5:59 AM on Pokémon Ultra Moon. If you level up during the wrong time slot, just press B to cancel evolution, and level it up further in the right time slot.

Now, Mimikyu. Mimikyu is… adorable. It might be one of the greatest Pokemon ever created. It’s this adorable disguised ghost Pokemon that dresses up as Pikachu so people will love it. Not only does it have a tragic story, it is also one of the most competitive devastating Pokemon, thanks to an amazing stat distribution, a great typing (Ghost/Fairy), and an ability that lets it absorb all of one attack without taking any damage.

So how do you catch it? Mimikyu is relatively easy to find for a Pokemon this great- albeit you need to be prepared:

You can only catch it after the sixth island trial

You should have loads of Dusk Balls ready

Teach one of your Pokemon False Swipe

Go to the Thrifty Megamart in the evening (night time+interior of a dungeon means you get 4X catch rate bonuses on a Dusk Ball)

Now for the hard part- Mimikyu has a ridiculously low spawn rate. 5%- so 1 in 20 battles on average. You’ll be fighting a lot of riff-raff on the way to get to Mimikyu, but once one appears, False Swipe it till its HP is 1 and use your Dusk Balls to catch it.

Mimikyu is incredible- you won’t regret having it on your team.

EXP AND HEART SCALE FARMING TIPS

Okay, so, like, this goes without saying, but you want to maximize your EXP gain, since it is how your Pokemon level up. Fortunately, you can do so relatively easily with Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:

Activate the Roto EXP Points Power

Get the Lucky Egg

Try and find Blissey and fight them in SOS Chains

Heart Scales

Heart Scales are used as currency for Move Tutors, so you can never have too many of them. Getting them is.. not easy.